Harry and Ginny After the War
by guenterpolo
Summary: The war is over, Voldemort is defeated. However, the victory is not felt as it should be. Fred's death hits Ginny hard, and it is hard to overcome. Will she forgive Harry? Will the Weasleys accept Harry as Ginny's boyfriend?
1. Chapter 1

**DISCLAIMER-I OWN NOTHING. THIS IS JKR'S WORLD, I AM JUST USING IT. **_Please feel free to review! It's my first story and I'm sure I need lots of help!_

Ginny had imagined the victory over Voldemort would feel better, but she had not fully realized what the battle could take from her. Fred's death was taking a great toll on Ginny, and it still hadn't sunk in that never again would he follow George into the kitchen, or tease her about a boyfriend. If George ever did recover from his brother's loss, his laugh would not be echoed by his twin. She did not want to think about his funeral, anytime she would start to imagine it her eyes would become red and she'd have to rush out of the Hall again. 17 years of living with six brothers had taught her not to cry, at least not in front of them.

Just a few hours had passed from when Harry had defeated Voldemort, and Ginny was still avoiding him. She wanted nothing less than to speak with him, but didn't know how to approach him with her questions. Twice, he had discreetly tried to motion for her to walk with him, but both times she had ignored him and walked away. She had hoped that some sleep would help her clear her mind and give her some relief, but she had been interrupted by dreams of Fred dying, and George blaming her for Fred's death. Now, after her fourth time of being awoken by George's anguished yells, she decided that sleep simply was not the answer. Deciding that she would go for a nighttime walk, she pulled back her curtains.

Looking down to put on her shoes, Ginny heard the sound of another curtain being pushed back. She looked up, to see Hermione, eyes red, sitting on the edge of her bed.

"Couldn't sleep?" Hermione said. You could see she hadn't gotten much of a rest either, there were still small tears sliding down the edge of her face.

"No. This, it all, it just seems, t-too big and s-sad to t-take in." Ginny whimpered.

"Come on. We both need a walk." Hermione had gotten out of her bed and was extending a hand to Ginny, who slowly took it.

They crept past Bill and Fleur, and climbed down the stairs to the Gryffindor common room. They glanced at the clock, and saw it was already ten o'clock in the morning. The final duel between Voldemort and Harry had taken place right around 2, and she hadn't gotten to bed until 7, just three hours ago. Once out past the empty portrait of the Fat Lady, Hermione felt she could now start to talk.

"How are you doing, with all, this?" She asked gently.

"Its just hard to know, he's not coming back." Tears began to flow down Ginny's already-glistening cheeks, and she suddenly felt light headed. The realization of the whole past day came crashing over her. Fred was gone. Remus was gone. Tonks was gone.

Hermione seemed to read her thoughts. "Ginny, I know how tough this on you. You've been so brave so far. Look at the positives, though. You're here. Mum, Dad, Charlie, Bill, and George, Ron, even Percy came back. You know I'm always here for you. And Harry. He made it through this. You need to be strong and be there for him, and I know he'll do the same for you."

Her words seemed to have the desired effect on Ginny. When Hermione had mentioned Harry's name, her eyes had twitched hopefully, even for just the slightest of milliseconds. The end of the war could have been so much worse. What if Harry hadn't been able to defeat Voldemort, and now they were all dead, or worse, under his rule? The thought was almost unbearable to ponder.

Harry. She now realized that she had to speak with him, whether she was ready or not. Her anger at him was exactly what he didn't need, after all of these months apart. He had been on the run, risking his life, trying to defeat Voldemort. His victory should have been met by her with a long walk where they could talk about the past year, and maybe even the future a little. She could tell by the way he had looked at her in the Room of Requirement that his love for her had never faltered.

They walked past the Herbology greenhouses, where they saw the reconstruction had already begun. A small group of groggy witches and wizards were pointing their wands at the same corner of the greenhouse, whose broken blocks were coming together and mending. Further on, they saw a group of centaurs, trying to fix what Voldemort's giants had done to their forest.

As they walked around the corner of the castle, they saw the outline of two others walking toward them. Even though the war still showed on Harry and Ron's figures, Ginny had no problem recognizing them. She instantly broke out into a run, with Hermione not far behind. When Ginny and Harry finally reached each other, they hugged as they never hugged before.

Ginny tried to put a lot of unsaid feelings into that hug, and what felt like hours later, when they finally broke apart, Ginny could tell Harry understood. She glanced at Hermione and Ron, who had also embraced, and said, "Harry and I are going to walk for a while. We'll meet you two back at the Hall in a couple of hours."

"Us too," said Ron, grasping Hermione's hand, and giving it a tight squeeze, causing Hermione to blush.

Ginny took Harry's hand, and together they slowly walked towards the rising sun, with Ginny pondering how she could begin to ask him what had happened in these last months.

"Harry, what, I mean, how-" She took a deep breath and gathered her thoughts. "Where have you been? What were you doing? Why couldn't you tell me?" She finally spluttered out.

"First, Ginny, know that my love for you never wavered. You were the one that kept me going. I will not keep from you any longer this thrilling tale, as you have the right to know." And then, without any more hesitation, Harry began to tell Ginny how he miraculously defeated Voldemort, and saved the Wizarding World from a near catastrophic collapse.


	2. Chapter 2

**DISCLAIMER: THIS IS ALL JKR'S WORLD, I'M JUST USING IT! **_Please review! Enjoy!_

Ginny had found Harry's story almost unbelievable. Harry's short explanation of the word _Horcrux_, which he had used many times in his tale, did not help. How could there be a bit of someone's soul in something else? And there were so many crazy things that he said he did! They saw Harry's parents' graves, and got attacked by You-Know-Who's snake right afterward? They were captured and tortured in Malfoy Manor? They broke into Gringotts, which was supposed to be impossible?

Ginny had let Harry speak without interruption, only gasping at the extremely scary turns and giving a short scream when he said Hermione had been tortured by Bellatrix. She was extremely thankful her mother was able to rid them of Bellatrix, but felt a small twinge of annoyance that she was unable to do it herself.

"Why couldn't you let me know where you were, Harry?" Ginny asked. Harry had seemed to have forgotten her last question, though she thought he might had skipped it on purpose.

"I just didn't want you getting too caught up in it. I didn't want you coming after us, if you found out where we were. If Voldemort would have found out there was this type of a relationship between us, he would have used it. I was doing my best to keep you safe if I couldn't be protecting you all the time."

Ginny was a little stung by this. "Protection? I am very capable of protecting myself!"

"Ginny, Voldemort had ways of hurting you that you can't even imagine. No contact between us would be the best thing."

Although Ginny disagreed, she trusted Harry's judgement and let the disagreement end.

"I'm sorry, Harry. Not seeing you for so long, really got to me, and I was just worried that, well, you might had found someone el-" and at that point Harry abruptly pulled her into a long, sweet kiss, a kiss even better than their first after the Quidditch Cup victory, better than anything she had ever imagined. She kissed him back with a fiery passion, and instantly her fears were eradicated. There was no doubt. Harry loved her as much as she loved him, and his affection had never faltered.

Holding hands, they walked back to the Great Hall, where Ron and Hermione were already eating breakfast. The house-elves had outdone themselves this time, with too many cakes and pastries to count, all celebrating the victory over Voldemort. The house-elves must not of gotten any sleep since the battle. Hermione refrained from saying anything about S.P.E.W., they were all too tired to talk about such a trivial topic.

Harry and Ginny came down to the table and sat down across from Ron and both had red faces with sheepish smiles, and it looked like they were holding hands under the table.

"Is there something you need to tell us?" Asked Ginny, even though both her and Harry knew exactly what was going on.

"What are you talking about?" Said Hermione, failing to hide her blushed cheeks.

"Has there been a new, er, development?" Said Harry.

"Oh well, um, Ron and I, um, are, dating, now." Hermione said. Her and Ron both blushed even harder, which Ginny didn't even think was possible.

"Really!? Wow! That came out of nowhere!" Said Harry sarcastically, causing Ron to kick him under the table and say "Oh, shut up, mate," even though he was still smiling.

Harry and Ginny teased Ron and Hermione for a little longer, it had been clear for years that they had liked each other but neither had really had the guts to ask the other out. It was nice to smile and laugh again, the wearisome events of the night past forgotten for a little while, and just act like normal teenagers.

More and more people filed into the Great Hall, everyone still groggy. Professor McGonagall stood up from the Head Table, and flicked her wand to make the papers in front of her go in 8 different stacks on top of a new table at the front of the hall. She then walked up to the podium and began to speak.

"Anybody wishing to help restore the castle may sign up here. There are many duties that need to be accomplished, so any and all help that can be given will be greatly accepted. Some groups have already started, as there is a lot of work to do. Thank you!"

As soon as Professor McGonagall had finished talking, the Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione all jumped up to their seats to sign up to help. Professor McGonagall had seen them get up and rushed over to speak with them.

"Mr. Potter, what do you think you are doing?" She said.

"What do you mean, Professor?" Harry was obviously confused, he had not been doing anything wrong.

"You need to rest, Potter! You just defeated the greatest Dark wizard of all time. Your friends and yourself should go back to bed!"

"We're all fine, and ready to help, Professor. I insist." Said Harry.

Well, if you say so, Potter. The lists are over there." Professor McGonagall directed them towards the sign-up sheets.

"Ron! I think you should sign up for this one!" Said Ginny, pointing to a sheet title **'****Remove the dead Acromantulas from the Grounds****'**. Ginny never missed a chance to tease Ron about his fear of spiders. Ron walked to the other side of the room, and found a more enjoyable list: **'****Help Hagrid Repair His House****'**. The four of them instantly scribbled their name under the title and rushed off to help Hagrid.

They hurried out the Great Hall doors and down the steps to Hagrid's hut, passing streams of students, teachers, and other people that helped fight the Death Eaters, who shouted words of congratulations to Harry and the others.

All four felt much better after talking out their feelings this morning, and looked forward to a morning of helping out under the beautiful blue sky.


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter.**

A/N: Thanks for reading! Sorry for the wait, I had a little writer's block. I have decided that this story will probably be around 8-9 chapters, so expect that. Please read and review!

They arrived at Hagrid's to find some of the others already working. Luna was helping Neville repair the door, and Ernie MacMillan was fixing the garden. They went over to ask Hagrid what they should do.

"Hagrid! How can we help!" Asked Hermione.

"Blimey, Harry, you scared me. I guess you can start on the garden over there, with Ernie."

And without further ado, the four walked over to Ernie and started helping him. Many spells had hit the garden and many of the plants were smashed. The venomous plants posed a problem, so they all found some gloves and began to work.

Almost four hours later, the four traipsed back to the common room for a change of clothes, with many new scratches and cuts to show. Ron's stomach was grumbling loudly, so they decided to head down to grab something to eat in the Great Hall.

On their trip down, the castle seemed almost good as new. There were a couple of Knights in armor missing, and a few of the picture frames still had no inhabitants, but many of the rubble had been picked up and it had really improved the look of the castle.

As Ginny was observing all of these improvements, she saw something that caught her eye. A boy with silver, almost white hair was walking straight at them. How could Malfoy possibly still be here? He was a Death Eater after all, why wasn't he going to Azkaban with the rest of them? She looked over to Harry to see how he was taking this development, and was surprised to see him give a slight nod to Draco. She was stunned. Weren't Harry and Draco enemies for life? What could this sign of, not friendship, but respect, maybe, mean? As soon as Malfoy was out of sight, she instantly turned to Harry.

"What was that all about? I thought you two hated each other! And why isn't he in Azkaban with all of his Death Eater friends?" She whispered angrily.

"When Hermione, Ron and I were caught by the snatchers, Draco saved my life. He knew that it was me, even with the Stinging Hex Hermione put on me, but he wouldn't confirm my identity to Bellatrix. And last night, in the forest, his mother saved me again. She lied to Voldemort, telling him I was dead, after I told her that Draco was alive in the castle. They've done many awful things, but they deserve a reprieve. I told Kingsley all of this, and he decided to hold them here instead of head them straight to Azkaban, so they can have a real trial."

"Oh Harry, sometimes you're just too good of a person." Smiled Ginny, and then reached up and kissed him on the cheek.

Ron started to make retching noises, which were quieted with a Hermione elbow to the ribs, and the two couples resolved to holding hands until they reached the Great Hall.

After eating a delicious lunch, the group decided to go for a short walk out to the Quidditch pitch, and then meet up with the Weasleys, since they had not seen them except for a brief conversation at breakfast.

The Quidditch pitch was almost completely destroyed. Only one of the six hoops remained standing, and the ground was torn up so as though you could barely recognize it. The seating for the spectators had also been hit bad, although the section where the teachers usually sat seemed to be untouched. This greatly upset Ginny, Ron, and Harry, and even Hermione was disturbed by the sight of it.

"I wonder why McGonagall didn't assign a team to try to fix the pitch," murmured Harry.

"She decided that the job was too big for an unexperienced group of students to attend to. She is having wizards from the Ministry's Repair team come tomorrow to begin to work on it." Nobody had seen or heard Madam Hooch come up behind them, so they all turned at the sound of her voice. Her answer did seem to make sense though, for not any of them knew how to fix a Quidditch pitch.

"How long do you think it will take?" Asked Ginny. She was quite pained by the sight of the field and was hoping that it would be ready for the next year.

"Hopefully no more than a couple weeks. I believe it will be ready for next season." Said Madam Hooch, reading Ginny's mind.

The flying teacher then left, leaving them to stare at the field.

"Maybe I can play next year, too." Said Harry.

Ron and Ginny's faces dropped.

"How could you do that? We missed our seventh year." Said Ron.

"I was thinking along the same lines, Harry." Said Hermione. "I think Harry is implying that we could ask Professor McGonagall if we could come back for a real seventh year, since this one was a little disrupted."

Ginny broke into a huge smile.

"That'd be great! We could have a nice, normal year! We could all play Quidditch together, and be in the same classes." Said Ginny.

"Yeah, it would be nice to have a year where I wasn't fearing for my life." Joked Harry.

"And I'd really like to finish my education, it would be pretty difficult to find a job without any N.E.W.T.'s." Said Hermione.

A whole year to spend time with Harry, thought Ginny excitedly. She couldn't think of anything she'd rather do. Now that the idea was planted in her head, she was desperately hoping McGonagall would allow them to come back.

And with that happy thought in all of their heads, they began to start the trek back to the castle, only to be interrupted with another loud rumble from Ron's stomach.

"Aren't you ever not hungry?" Said Hermione, although she said it with a small smile.


End file.
